


Different Kind of Hero

by orphan_account



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-21
Updated: 2012-06-21
Packaged: 2017-11-08 05:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/439665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper may not wield a shield and her armor might just be a really well-tailored suit, but she goes into battle every day nonetheless to keep Stark Industries and Tony from falling apart. And maybe that makes her a bit of a superhero too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Different Kind of Hero

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Bingo challenge at its_always_been on LJ.  
> My words were New York, Blueberries, Reconstruction, and Enemy.

Pepper has always known that Tony has enemies.  
  
Not all of them are supervillains, of course--most of them are average human beings with very human grudges against Tony for one reason or another. Those are the enemies she can handle; the enemies that are fought with press releases and backroom deals, with carefully worded statements ‘overheard’ by journalists and thinly veiled economic threats.  
  
It’s the enemies with powers beyond the average human that she worries about now that Tony’s face is splashed across every newspaper and blog in the world. As a billionaire, he was a target. As Iron Man, he’s a flashing neon sign that says “Come at me if you have the cojones, motherfuckers” in bright red and gold.  
  
As if men like Stane and Vanko hadn’t been enough to keep her awake at night. Now she has to worry about  gods and  aliens and goodness knows what else because Tony’s now part of a genuine team of  superheroes and the media wants every second of their attention (even though it’s not going to happen--S.H.I.E.L.D. is keeping the vultures away for now, which has earned them the appreciation of the entire Stark Industries PR team a thousand times over).  
  
Tony keeps nattering on about reinforced concrete and structural integrity, stretched out on the couch in the penthouse while simultaneously eating handful after handful of dried blueberries. Pepper is trying her best to listen while making half a dozen phone calls to various construction firms, working out the details to start rebuilding the half of Manhattan that ended up a battlefield casualty. This includes Stark Tower, which Tony (she catches this bit between phone calls) is thinking of renaming ‘Avengers Tower’ and inviting the whole damn team to live with them.   
  
This only makes Pepper more concerned, for now she has to worry about not only Tony’s potential enemies, but those of the rest of the Avengers (because she can say no to Tony at any point, but he gets genuinely excited about so few things and she can’t deny him this incredibly altruistic gesture). And considering that team consists of one high-profile genius billionaire, two assassins, one scientist with a penchant for turning into a gigantic raging monster, a Norse god, and a man who is practically the literal incarnation of America...that’s a lot of enemies to worry about.  
  
But Tony is still eating blueberries and leaning down to kiss her while she’s in the middle of a call with the mayor’s staff (she may be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company but Bloomberg is apparently too much of a dick to talk to her directly). And now she’s going to have to make more calls to the team working on the tower because if they’re going to have a team of superheroes living on the premises, there’s a lot of work to be done beyond repairing the damage left behind by Loki and his army.  
  
Pepper may not wield a shield and her armor might just be a really well-tailored suit, but she goes into battle every day nonetheless to keep Stark Industries and Tony from falling apart. And maybe that makes her a bit of a superhero too.


End file.
